65 (2023)

"Adam Driver Vs. Dinosaurs! Well, a Bit."

After its cinema release back in March, writer-directors Scott Beck and Bryan Woods' new science-fiction picture (they co-wrote A QUIET PLACE with John Krasinski) gets a digital rental and download-and-keep release from Sony.

En route from his home planet with a cargo of cryogenically frozen passengers, pilot Mills (Adam Driver) encounters a freak asteroid belt that hits his ship and sends it off course, crashing into the earth. The catch is that this is the earth of 65 million years ago, with all the prehistoric threat that implies. 

Most of the passengers are killed, the only survivor being nine year old Koa (Ariana Greenblatt). During the crash the emergency escape ship ended up at the top of a mountain so that's where Mills and Koa have to go. The problems are that they don't share a language, monsters who want to eat them might be in the way, and that cluster of asteroids looks headed towards the earth.

65 sounds great, doesn't it? The trailer makes it look pretty good as well, almost as if we're going to get a variation on THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT or some other Edgar Rice Burroughs-inspired adaptation that back in the day might have starred Doug McClure as the stranded pilot.

Unfortunately, that's not what 65 is like at all. Instead it's like a script was pitched about a man who has to escort a little girl through a threatening wilderness while at the same time dealing with his own emotional pain and somebody said 'You know what would improve this? Spaceships and dinosaurs!' Sadly when we do get to the all-too-infrequent dinosaur encounters they're put together less with any emphasis at attempting suspense and more on trying to carbon copy scenes from other films, especially JURASSIC PARK.

So 65 ends up being a lot of interaction between Mills and Koa, and not a lot of scenes of Adam Driver fighting dinosaurs, which is a great concept and one worth paying to see, but it's not really this film. Anyway, if you fancy some highlights here's the (actually pretty good) trailer:

65 is now out on Digital Rental and Download-and-Keep from Sony